Find Yourself
by xxDeathGoddessxx
Summary: Fionna and Marshall Lee embark on an adventure in the Unknown Lands to find a mysterious tree that somehow survived the Great Mushroom War. They never expected to find each other in the process.
1. Chapter 1

"And you want my baby-cakes to help you why?" Cake asked, a little exasperated. Even though I was sixteen now, and it had been revealed long ago that he had more interest in strawberries and pranks than sucking our blood (and that he was a major softie), she _still _didn't trust the vampire. The last time I asked her why, she just said, "Because the boy is frozen somewhere around 18, and he's _male. _You're 16 and innocent and _female_."

I still didn't get it.

It probably didn't help that he was asking for me to accompany him on an adventure that lasted a lot longer than a day... Try a month.

The vampire shrugged, "There's gonna be some monsters where I'm going. I wouldn't mind having someone watching my back. She likes to hack things to bits and doesn't have a personal vendetta against me. Unlike _some people."_

Cake crossed her arms and looked like she would've been raising an eyebrow (do cats have eyebrows that just blend in with the fur?), "You're asking if I'm going to let Fionna go with you, glob knows where, and it's going to be dangerous?"

"It's nothing she can't handle," he said, "I just figured she might want to get away for a while, and I happen to be going on this radical trip to a place with easy-to-slice baddies."

Then he mumbled something that I couldn't hear, but Cake's feline senses picked up.

And her whole demeanor changed.

"You know what?" she said, turning to me, "Bat-boy is right. You haven't really been out in a while. You don't really adventure much anymore... not since Flame Prince... Nevermind. Some fresh air and carnage would do you some good. Away from guys."

Marshall snorted, "Am I not a guy?"

"Well I can't claw fire into little bits, but I can claw vampire. So I'm not really worried." If Marshall could've gotten paler, I imagine he would've.

Now I get it.

Alright, so I hadn't gone adventuring as much since FP friend-zoned me. But I was still _adventuring_. So what if I'm a little bummed? I'm the only human (as far as I know). It's not like there are lots of human-shaped princes walking around Aaa, and I donked up big time with the only one that actually returned any of my affection. Let a girl wallow for a while would you?

I sighed.

"Seriously guys? I appreciate what you're trying to do. But I'm _fine."_

_"_You've been moping around the tree fort doing nothing but playing BMO and running errands for Gumball," Marshall said, "aren't you bored out of your mind yet?"

I started to say no, but truth be told, I was getting a little sick of this lay-around routine.

"Nevertheless," I said, "why are you suddenly doing this for me anyway? You aren't exactly known for doing things out of the goodness of your heart."

"Uh... well..." this should be good. "I've just been wanting to spend some time with a bro lately. Most of my bros are in the Night O'Sphere and you've been moping around for months..." he trailed off.

And suddenly, it clicked.

"You missed me!" I yelled, feeling some of that familiar spring in my step. I pointed a finger at him and sang childishly, "Marshy missed me, Marshy the marshmallow!"

"I did not!" he protested. But I kept pushing until he grabbed the finger that was poking his chest teasingly, pulled me close to his face, made his eyes glow red and growled.

"Tell me that to my face!" he said. I suppose that was supposed to be menacing, but, by this point... meh. So I smirked and said, "You missed me, ya big marshmallow!"

He shoved me away, "Whatever, so are you going with me or not?"

Starting to feel some excitement toward the idea, I said, "Why not? My swords are just laying around all sharp and ready to slice something up! Let's go! Uh... where exactly is it that we're going that it'll take us a month to get this whole ordeal over with?"

He smirked, "It's the getting there part that'll take a long time. I'm still trying to find this place. I really just kind of want to see it to believe it, ya know? It's sort of a legend."

I made a get-to-the-point face.

"We're going to the Great Tree House."

"What the plumb is so special about a tree?" I asked, a little confused, "I live in a tree."

"I'm not sure Fi. It's rumored to be the last remaining living thing from before the Mushroom War. Besides me and Ice Queen. Problem is I'm not sure exactly where it is, just that it's in the Unknown Lands, where that chunk was taken out of the planet. That's also where most of the War took place. Rumor has it that it's grown so big, that parts of the tree aren't really made out of tree. Like the taller parts are made out of clouds, or something. But the guy I got the info from looked a little, um, out of it...So that could just be a load of," He looked at Cake nervously, "Anyway, it probably isn't true. But what interested me was that some of the humans were taking refuge in a tree house that was there during the war. Back then it was just an oak in somebody's yard. But if some of the last humans were there, there's a decent chance there's something important there. I don't want to get you're hopes up or anything, but there could be other humans. No one ever goes into the Unknown Lands. Hence the 'Unknown'.

I took a deep breath, almost like I was trying to suck in the information.

"So what you're saying is," I began, "if I go on this adventure with you, I could learn about who I am?"

**So what do you guys think of this as an idea?**


	2. Chapter 2

There wasn't really much of a decision to be made after that. Finding about who I am? Heck yeah! I raced up to the room I shared with Cake, shoved some clothes and other stuff into the backpack Raggedy Prince had made for me, grabbed my sword made from demon's blood and ran back down to the front door. I ignored Cake's protest of, "What did I tell you about running with swords? It's bad enough when you run with scissors!" I heard Marshall snicker at that.

I felt a tiny twinge of hesitation at leaving Cake. This wasn't just a night of videogames at Marshall's or a couple days of her visiting LM and the litter. We were gonna be gone. For a long time. And it's no secret that my sister was getting old. Cat years fly by faster than human years. And she was getting up there. But she would still be there when I got back. I would just miss a little bit of time.

I wondered what it was like for Marshall. A couple decades was probably like the blink of an eye to him. All my waiting and excitement over getting older and bigger was probably nothing. Time just stretched out endlessly. I bet that was pretty lonely. The only people that even have a chance of living long enough to matter to the guy were either demons, or his mom (and there's a reason he avoids her). It was weird to imagine him still being around a hundred years after I died.

I shook all those thoughts off and hugged Cake goodbye. I whispered in her ear, "I'll miss you. Say hi to LM and the kittens."

She nodded, and I thought I saw a tear in her eye.

"So where exactly do we start?" I asked Marshall eagerly, stepping out of the tree house and into the cool night air.

He floated around in front of me, so he was moving backwards, and said, "We're going someplace huge, full of mystery, excitement, and legends, and danger..." He paused for dramatic effect, feeling my excitement, "We're going to the library."

"Oh bunk that!" I yelled, instantly deflating. And then I paused, remembering something he'd said, "What's so dangerous about a library?"

He smirked, "Paper cuts Fi. I might not be able to resist." He flew close, so he was inches from my face. He dipped down to my neck, eyes glowing red, fangs out. I rolled my eyes. I knew this routine. I pushed his head away.

"Really Marshall. That's never going to work again. Come on, if we're going to the library, let's just go." I tried not to sigh at the thought.

On our walk there (I refused to let Marshall carry me there. He has this habit of dropping me and catching me right before I hit the ground. And I decided not to take my chances), I asked him,

"So why do we need to go to the library anyway?"

He shrugged, "I'm not positive on this, but I think Turtle Prince keeps some old, Pre-War maps locked away somewhere. He won't show them to anyone but Gumbutt, but I think I could convince him to change his mind," he said, looking at me with a fanged smirk.

"Oh, ok..." I said, about to let the subject drop. But then... "Wait a sec, Gumball's seen maps of the world before the war?" I could hear the anger pouring into my voice. Why didn't he show _me?! _If he _knew_ something?!

"Yep. Don't get too mad at him," he said, reading my thoughts, "I don't think he gathered much from them. But, he didn't know what to look for. If he found something interesting, he probably would have shown you. I know it always frustrates him, looking at them, because he _can't_ get anything from them."

"And you know this how?" I asked, still not ready to drop it.

He smirked, "I used to prank him a lot. Would follow him around all invisible, and jump-scare him. Then his hearing got better, so now he's kinda immune to those."

I smiled, "Uh huh. You sure you weren't just spying on him because you liked hanging around him?"

He snorted. "Pshh, nah. Why would I want to hang around him for non-pranking purposes? He's crazy boring. He's not a radical dame like you," he said, dropping his voice low, flying close to me.

I rolled my eyes. For some reason, Marshall hadn't realized that the whole flirting-with-me thing stopped being funny years ago when he pretended to be dying. In fact, it wasn't really all that funny before then. Well... it was to him, but that's only because it used to get me all flustered. And not in good way or anything. I swear.

I pushed his head away and said, "C'mon, there's the library... Lets get this over with."

"Yo! TP!" Marshall yelled, his voice echoed and bounced off the massive walls and bookshelves. The library was huge. I honestly couldn't see where the roof became the back wall. I couldn't stand the place. It was too quiet, too boring. Though with Marshall yelling, it didn't seem so bad.

We heard a faraway "SHHHHH!" followed by a stage whisper of, "Keep your voices down! I'm coming".

I found that a little ridiculous, seeing as the place was practically abandoned.

We knew that it would take TP about a year to find us (I mean come on... _Turtle _Prince). So I followed Marshall, who had already located the guy with his vampire hearing. Before we got there, he said, "I'll handle this."

TP narrowed his eyes at Marshall, "I should've known it was you," he mouthed, "No one else would yell in a library."

Marshall rolled his eyes, "There's no one here man. You can drop the librarian thing for a minute. I'm here to see the maps."

TP started to sweat, "Um, what maps? We've got all sorts of maps here."

"You know what maps TP. The Pre-Mushroom War maps. The ones you're always showing Gumball."

His eyes widened, "How did you- I mean... I don't know what you're talking about... Gumball frequently visits here for research, but he doesn't look at maps."

Marshall morphed into a giant bat monster, nearly knocking over all the bookshelves around us, and setting off a catastrophic domino effect.

"You sure about that, Turtle Prince?" He growled.

TP gulped, "Actually, now that you mention it, I think I may actually have a few maps in my possession. Follow me please."

He stood up, and started making his way toward the back of the library.

Marshall morphed back to his humanoid form and whispered to me, "Well that went better than expected."

**Reviews?**


	3. Chapter 3

In the far back corner of the massive library was an inconspicuous door with a deadbolt. A handwritten sign taped to the door read "**Storage: Authorized Personnel Only."**

Turtle Prince pulled out a ring of keys, selected a small silver key, stuck it in the lock and turned. The door swung open with a long creeeaaaaak. Stone steps led down into the pitch blackness that I assumed was the basement. TP flicked a switch, and wall torches I hadn't seen before flared to life.

"Spooky," I half whispered. Marshall smirked, no doubt thinking of ways to try and jump-scare me while we were down there.

TP started down the stairs, and motioned for us to follow, saying, "Watch your step."

The stars led to a short hall, and two doors. One of which, was just like the first, only open, and contained cardboard boxes and books, all coated with a thick layer of dust.

The other door, however, towered above us. It was made of a dark wood, and seemed to be encrusted with jewels. There was a series of keyholes and latches. TP ordered us to turn around. Not wanting to screw up our chances of getting in, we did as he asked.

I felt my excitement grow. I'd learned from years of adventuring that rooms behind big, fancy doors like that, there were one of two things. 1. Some kind of amazing, awesome treasure. Or 2. Some kind of trap that held a big, bad monster.

These maps must've been really something.

The door was obviously heavy, and I heard it drag across the floor as it opened.

"You may turn around now."

We did so, and we didn't believe what we saw.

Behind the door lay a cavernous room, dominated by a large, dark wood desk. And it was full of things I'd never seen before.

On one wall, there were cameras, screens like BMO has, only larger, and all sorts of electrical machines, ranging from large to small. There were cars, like the ones I'd seen abandoned in woods and junk yards. But cleaner, newer, almost as if they could operate. There were all sorts of objects I couldn't place on shelves, along with ones I could. Hammers sat along side a strange kind of light emanating from a strange kind of bottle with pink globs of liquid floating in water.

But what caught my eye, was the wall of weapons.

Swords, made of a silvery kind of metal, polished and sharpened, not a hint of rust. Daggers in just as good condition. Cannons, slingshots, bows and arrows and... A strange, black contraption, with some kind of handle, and a long neck with a small hole at the end. I was about to ask what it was, when Marshall flew straight to it, and picked it up.

"How did you find a _rilfle_? I thought those were all destroyed _centuries ago_."

"A flood," TP said, "Revealed the corpse of what seemed to be a fallen soldier. Prince Gumball brought it in to ask if I knew what it was."

"Oh man," he said, practically drooling, "I've only seen these on tv, and that was before the war."

"What does it do?" I asked. It had to be something exciting, if Marshall was this excited, "Is it a good thing?"

His expression darkened a little.

"It's not really a good thing Fi. But, I've found that there's something fascinating about potential for mass destruction. That's essentially what these things caused. They shoot a piece of metal called a bullet, really fast, into someone else. If you land a good shot, you kill them. It was kind of a way to find without there really being much of a fight. Not much actual combat."

I thought about that for a second.

"A coward's weapon," I said.

"Pretty much," he said, shrugging. He put the rifle back on the wall.

TP cleared his throat and said, "Anyway, the map you're looking for is over here."

He led us to the desk, where a map was spread out.

It was full of labels and rivers and oceans I'd never seen before, but Marshall seemed to recognize it.

"Okay Fionna, you see this right here? Where it says Canada? We're somewhere around there, close to the border. You see that lake? You've been there before, it's the one in front of my cave. And you see that area over there? That's the Candy Kingdom."

I nodded, beginning to get my bearings.

"So that means," I said, "That area below us, where it's shaded purple, that's the Unknown Lands?"

"Yep," he said, "And the tree we're looking for? Is somewhere around..." he moved his finger in a circle, until he was near the bottom left of the Unknown Lands, "here."

Below and to the right the unknown lands, were even more unfamiliar areas shaded in different colors. But Marshall seemed to just be focused on Ooo, and the purple shaded area.

"TP, do you have any more detailed maps of this area?" he asked.

"I'm sorry," TP said, "but no. This is the only map we have from before the war."

"Do you mind if we take it with us?"

TP started to protest, but then seemed to realize that it wasn't really a question.

"Just... bring it back okay? Don't destroy it, or Gumball will have my head."

"No problemo."

We walked back out of the library and into the moonlight. Marshall rolled up the map and stuck it into my backpack. Only, the tube was really long, so it stuck out the top. He started floating off, and I followed him, yelling, "Hey! Wait up! Where you going?"

"Grocery kingdom," he said, smirking at my having to run, "You coming?"

I rolled my eyes, "Why're you going there?"

"You gotta eat something while were gone Fi. I can survive on red stuff, but you're much more... high maintenance. And I dunno what's going to be out there. I honestly have no idea what it's going to be like..." he trailed off, and I waited for him to finish the sentence.

"But I'm pretty excited to be going home."

**Reviews feed my soul.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I know, I know, I'm terrible at updating. I'm sorry. Life is hectic. We cool? Cool. This is mostly filler. I'm very sorry. Well, not really. Read at your own risk,**

The trip to the grocery kingdom was pretty short. I wasn't a picky eater, so most of what we would be eating would either come from a can, or maybe we would hunt if the animals there were still normal. Marshall found himself a few cans of red pie filling and said, "This ought to last me."

Everything fit in my pack, so we got out of there with hours to go before dawn. The clerk did give us some weird looks though. I could imagine why. Although someone was always around the grocery kingdom, it was a pretty odd hour.

"So where to next?" I asked.

Marshall put on a wolfish grin, "My cave."

"What's there?" I asked.

"Sleep."

"Huh?"

"Sun's gonna come up soon, and I haven't slept in a while. We're both gonna need our rest. We'll set out tomorrow night."

I shrugged, "Yeah, alright."

After knowing Marshall Lee for years, I ought to have seen it coming. But, my human reflexes were slower than vampire speed, and the next thing I knew I was thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, or flour or... I don't know. A sack of something heavy. Don't even ask me how such a scrawny-looking guy kept me balanced up there. It's still beyond me. But at that moment, none of that really mattered. I was too livid about being treated like... well... a sack of something heavy.

"MARSHALL FREAKING LEE! PUT ME THE GLOB DOWN!"

I swear I could _hear _his smirk when he said, "No can do Fi. I have to get home before the sun comes up. And you humans walks so slow. We're flying."

And we were flying. I could feel the wind rushing in my ears, and bits of my hair not gathered in my hat were being blown around every which way. Oh yeah, and I was terrified. Wait, did I just say that? Scratch that! Adventuresses do _not _get terrified! That includes me!

"Marshall!" I protested, pounding my fists into his back, "Let me go! If you drop me I swear to glob-,"

"Let you go, don't let you go," he cut in, "you're contradicting yourself Fi. Make up your mind. Or maybe you just can't get over my warm, loving embrace."

I snorted, "You're kidding right? You understand you threw me over your shoulder like a full trash bag, right?" Trash bag! There's another one.

"That's more than most get."

"That's more than you get."

He stopped in mid-air, "Take. That. Back." he hissed, "I'm the Vampire King. Son of a Demon. I have defiled-,"

"Yeah yeah yeah, you're bad and evil and you've been with every female humanoid in Aaa and the Night O'Sphere, your mom's a demonic lawyer, blah blah blah. You're singin' the same old tune Marshy." I cut in.

"You did not just say that."

"Oh, I think I did."

"Alright then," he said. We had arrived at his oddly suburban house inside his appropriately-creepy-for-a-vampire cave. He walked in, and slammed the door shut in my face. I heard the click of the deadbolt.

"Have fun sleeping on rocks!" I heard him call.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to resist, I called back, "It'll be more fun than sleeping with you!"

Not a millisecond later the front door opened. Marshall stood there with his demon eyes boring into me. He floated over to me, and craned his head over my neck, hissing. I could feel his breath. I'm sure anyone else would be terrified at this point but... I knew Marshall. And he knew me. If he bit me, and gave me vampire powers, he'd be permanently dead meat, instead of just undead meat.

His hands moved to my upper arms, and his teeth grazed my neck.

"You sure about that Fionna?" he breathed.

I felt my stomach knot up and a shiver run down my spine at the tone of his voice. Wait... what? That's new. What the glob was that? I pushed the feeling down.

"Positive," I said.

"Well then," I swear I could hear that smirk, "I'm just going to have to prove otherwise."

And for the second time that night, I was hoisted up over his shoulder.

Instead of screaming this time, I waited until we were inside the house, and he had thrown me onto that uncomfortable couch that _must've _come from the Night O'Sphere. It was that point that I chose to spring up from the couch, pin that stupid demon boy against the wall, and deadpan, "Marshall Lee Abadeer, I'm going to kill you in your sleep."

He smirked, "Already dead Fi. And in case you haven't noticed, I don't keep any stakes around here. And moving me out into the sun will wake me up. Aaaaand, you just told me your plan. So how exactly were you planning to pull it off?"

"You'll just have to wait and see."

"Uh huh. If you kill me, you'll be so lost in despair at losing your one true love, you'll kill yourself too, Juliet."

I glared daggers at him, "Okay, first of all," I punched him, "I don't even remotely like you. You. Are. My Bro. That's it." and he muttered something like, "Lay off the cheek meat."

"Secondly," I said, "What the plum is a Juliet?"

"Pre-Shroom War reference. I don't know much about it actually. Some play. Two _star-crossed lovers," _his words were dripping with sarcasm, "from rivaling families met, fell in love, and killed themselves all in the course of a few days."

"Sounds moronic," I said. Love was so not worth any of that. And a few days? Yeah right.

"I thought so too. So did my dad. Said he skipped that unit of English class entirely when he was in school. But most people claim it to be brilliant, saying it wasn't really about star-crossed lovers, but the stupidity of teenagers and their idea of love. I don't know what it's really about, and I never will."

"Oh... what happened to your dad anyway? Like the full story?"

He got a pained look, "Um, another time Fi. Not right now."

All I could really say was, "So, were teenagers really that stupid back then?"

He chuckled, "They still kind of are now, if we're anything to go by."

"Hey! Maybe you, but I'm not! I don't even know what love is. I don't really think I've ever felt it. I think I've just felt... like, like-like ya know? And there's a difference right?"

He was silent for a moment, "Well Fi, you may be the smartest one in the department of love around today."

"See! I can be smart!"

He laughed, "Then again, what other person as fragile and breakable as you would go out and try to slay monsters all the time, uncaring if you get hurt."

"I'm a hero! Someone's gotta do it!"

"You certainly won't see me out there."

"You've helped me before."

"Well duh, can't let the last human die before she makes it out of adolescence. And of course, because it was you, Fionna. Anyways, we should get to sleep."

"You're taking the couch."


End file.
